Ottawa repeatedly violated procurement rules in giving ArriveCan firm nearly $100 million in contracts, auditor general finds
OTTAWA — Federal government organizations repeatedly violated procurement rules as they awarded GCStrategies Inc., the main firm behind the pandemic ArriveCan scandal, nearly $100 million in contracts over a nine-year period without proper oversight, Canada's auditor general has concluded in a new report.
Rebuking contracting practices under the Trudeau government in yet another damning report, auditor general Karen Hogan found federal agencies failed to justify procurement methods and contract costs, follow security measures and monitor the work of GCStrategies, ultimately falling short in showing value for the money spent and even paying contractors without proof work was done.
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Toronto Sun
4 hours ago
- Toronto Sun
GUNTER: Carney Liberals stubbornly holding onto EV lost cause
A Ford Mustang Mach-E electric vehicle (EV) charges via a CCS DC fast charger from Electrify America at a shopping mall parking lot in Torrance, California, on February 23, 2024. Environment Minister Julie Dabrusin promised Tuesday to restore the $5,000 Trudeau-era bribe to EV buyers and to spend tens of billions more (maybe more than $100 billion) building a network of charging stations. Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON / AFP via Getty Images This week, the Carney Liberals announced they had no intention of changing the Trudeau government's planned ban on gasoline-powered cars, trucks and vans beginning next year. Whether you want an EV, you'll be forced to buy one if you buy any new vehicle by 2035. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account This is the ideological equivalent of telling people who want a house they must by a condo, instead. The federal government is stubbornly holding on to its EV mandate in the face of declining market demand for electrics. Until the Carney Liberals choose not to build a new pipeline to the East Coast (which I expect them to announce in the next couple of years), this rigidity on EVs is the best proof yet that the Carney government differs very little from Justin Trudeau's. On Friday, Mercedes-Benz announced it was making a 'course correction.' It was no longer committed to going fully electric by 2030. 'Market conditions' (translation: lousy EV sales) were forcing it to 'retain internal combustion engines longer than initially planned.' Mercedes will even continue to develop gas-powered and diesel engines. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Only days before, Audi had made a similar climbdown. Honda, of course, announced last month it was suspending construction of $15 billion worth of EV plants in Ontario for at least two years. General Motors has shuttered its BrightDrop electric van plant in Ingersoll, Ont. And when it brings it back online this fall, GM plans to run the assembly line at half capacity or less. Since the beginning of the year, Stellantis (Chrysler and Fiat) has shied away from producing large numbers of EVs, as have Volvo, Porsche, Ferrari and the subsidiaries of Volkswagen. My favourite 'course correction' comes from Ford which, after losing $5 billion on EVs last year, announced it would be converting a planned EV plant in Ontario to making its 10,000-pound (4,500-kilogram) F-250 SuperDuty pickup. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Canadians are buying giant pickups, not EVs. And while politicians like federal Environment Minister Julie Dabrusin and Ontario Premier Doug Ford have blamed U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs for this dramatic dropoff (because both of their governments have gambled tens of billions on EV manufacturing), the truth is there isn't a strong market for EVs in a country with vast distances and cold winters. In case you don't believe that carmakers can read the market signals, maybe you'll believe Statistics Canada. Electric vehicles 'represented only 8.7 per cent of all new vehicle sales in Canada in the first quarter of 2025 — a drop from 16.5 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2024.' The biggest reason for the cliff-fall? In January, Ottawa ended its $5,000 per vehicle subsidies to EV buyers and Quebec reduced its $7,000 gift to $4,000 and announced its full phase-out by 2028. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. According to StatsCan, over half of all EVs sold in Canada in 2024 were purchased in Quebec. Little wonder, since Quebec EV buyers qualified for a total of $12,000 in kickbacks from Ottawa and their province. With those subsidies reduced to just $4,000 (and temporarily to $0 in February and March), StatsCan reported EV sales in Quebec fell by half in Q1. Meanwhile, van sales rose nationwide by 23 per cent, pick up sales by 10 per cent and SUVs by three per cent. But worry not eco-warriors, the federal Liberal government is going to try to recreate the fake market for all-electric vehicles using billions of additional tax dollars to chase the tens of billions they have already wasted on EV and EV battery plants. Dabrusin promised Tuesday to restore the $5,000 Trudeau-era bribe to EV buyers and to spend tens of billions more (maybe more than $100 billion) building a network of charging stations at every spruce tree, inukshuk and roadside picnic shelter across this huge country. No matter what the feds want to believe, there is no widespread market for EVs. Most EV buyers remain virtue-signalling rich people and enviro-activists. Columnists Columnists World Toronto & GTA Toronto & GTA
Calgary Herald
a day ago
- Calgary Herald
Braid: With Bill C-5, some politicians say federal power is a great thing after all
Is that the House of Commons I'm watching, or a hacked broadcast from some other country? Post election realignment in the chamber is a spectacular display of mutating principles. Article content Article content Conservatives back the Liberals on Bill C-5, which gives the federal cabinet more power. Article content They spent the whole Justin Trudeau era complaining about every Liberal power grab. Now they support a significant centralization, because it promises a result they want. Article content Article content The New Democrats and Greens, great lovers of central power, suddenly don't want it at all. Article content Article content The bill is an 'abomination,' said Green Leader Elizabeth May, who once said Ottawa should have full wartime powers to fight climate change. Article content Bill C-5 itself is a vital tool for breaking down the many barriers to development created by Trudeau and his gang of zealots. Article content The Conservatives grit their teeth to support the bill. It's not easy seeing another government implement your policies. Article content For many years, every resource project that came before the Liberals was an environmental problem rather than an economic opportunity. Trudeau set Canada's economy back a full decade Article content The bill gives the federal cabinet extraordinary power to approve and speed up new projects. Prime Minister Mark Carney wants it slammed through before the national will for a new economy begins to fade. Article content Article content Fall could bring an entirely different mood in Canada, especially if he gets a good result on trade from U.S. President Donald Trump. Article content To that end, quick passage of the bill is supported by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, and Premier Scott Moe in Saskatchewan. Article content Article content Smith brought in the Sovereignty Act. She fought the feds in court at every turn. Moe refused to collect federal tax on home heating fuel — an act branded criminal by Trudeau's crowd. Article content Now, the premiers are ready for more federal power, with some trepidation, because someday it might be used by a federal government even more hostile than Trudeau's.
CBC
3 days ago
- CBC
A Canada-Israel rift is widening over UN votes and sanctions
Social Sharing Israel's war with Iran has temporarily delayed a reckoning with some of its main Western allies, but seems unlikely to close what has become a yawning gap between them over its conduct in Gaza and the West Bank. "The relationship's not in great shape," said former Canadian ambassador to Israel Jon Allen. "Frankly, it shouldn't be." The gulf between the Canadian and Israeli governments widened further on June 12 as the Carney government took a firmer position against Israel's war in Gaza than its predecessor, voting for a UN motion similar to one that the Trudeau government had abstained on in September. At the time, the government explained that while it supported "the creation of the Palestinian state" and the International Court of Justice's role "in upholding the international rules-based order," it could not "support a resolution where one party, the state of Israel, is held solely responsible for the conflict." The Trudeau government also flagged concern over language that "aligns" with the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement targeting Israel. Canada's reservations appear to have fallen by the wayside. While neither UN resolution directly called for boycott or divestment of Israel, the earlier one did demand targeted sanctions on individuals engaged in "settler violence" — something Canada ultimately did last week. After initially agreeing to discuss the vote with CBC News, Global Affairs Canada rescinded approval of an interview request with Canada's permanent representative to the UN, Bob Rae. The department did not to explain its change of posture. WATCH | Netanyahu says Canada is 'emboldening Hamas': Netanyahu accuses Carney of 'emboldening Hamas' after D.C. shooting 27 days ago Duration 1:39:07 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attacked Canada, France and the U.K. in his response to the killing of two Israeli Embassy staffers in Washington, saying that 'when mass murderers, rapists, baby killers and kidnappers thank you, you're on the wrong side of justice.' Israel's Ambassador to Canada Iddo Moed responds to the countries' joint warning of sanctions over Israel's expansion of the war in Gaza, telling Power & Politics that 'Israel has the capability of conquering Gaza in half a day.' Plus, NDP interim leader Don Davies addresses a letter from three of the party's seven MPs calling out his selection as leader. Allen said Israel's reaction to Canada's threat of sanctions in May inflamed the situation. "Bibi [Netanyahu's] response, I thought, was despicable. It was vile," he told CBC News, as the Israeli prime minister connected a joint statement from Canada, the U.K. and France to the killing of two Israeli diplomats in D.C. "It was using the worst of allegations to score political points." Tensions between Israel and Canada remain high over the sanctioning of two Israeli cabinet ministers. But under the Trump administration, there's no reason Israel would worry about the U.S. applying any such pressure. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged Canada, Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Norway to reverse course. The U.S. ambassador to Israel invited the sanctioned ministers, Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir, to the U.S. embassy in a show of support. Ambassador Mike Huckabee said the sanctions against them were "a shocking decision," arguing "they have not conducted any criminal activity." But the two have long histories of racist and violent rhetoric and both have previously spent time in Israeli government custody for their words and actions. The five Western governments pointed to repeated inflammatory statements by the ministers encouraging the use of starvation and other illegal methods in Gaza, and their repeated calls for its population to be displaced and replaced with Jewish settlers, as justification for the sanctions. The U.S. also recently warned other governments not to attend a planned summit, to be hosted by France and Saudi Arabia at the UN, that aims to revive the hope for a two-state solution — an objective long held by most of the world including the U.S. outside of the two Trump administrations. Rubio sent a diplomatic cable threatening other countries with unspecified consequences if they took part, according to Reuters. An official with Global Affairs Canada told CBC News that Canada decides its own foreign policy and would not be influenced by the U.S. note. That summit has been postponed due to the outbreak of hostilities between Israel and Iran. But Allen thinks it likely that Canada will ultimately attend, regardless of any pressure from Washington. 'There is no peace process' The former diplomat said Canada could likely expect blowback from the U.S. if it were to officially recognize a Palestinian state, but argues it would probably be less serious than what he experienced in Washington when the Chrétien government opted to sit out George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq. Allen was invited to testify on the topic at the Commons foreign affairs committee last year, where he said he saw "overwhelming" support for the idea — including by members of the Liberal caucus. "But obviously the government is weighing its classic relationship with Israel, and its relationship with the U.S., and its relationship with the diaspora community here on that one," Allen said. WATCH | Trump doesn't rule out bombing Iran: Trump weighing use of U.S. bunker-busters in Israel's fight with Iran 6 hours ago Duration 5:25 Spain, Ireland and Norway all recognized the state of Palestine during the course of the current Gaza war, as do 144 other countries. He expects Canada would do the same "in conjunction with the U.K., France, Australia, for example." He said the strongest argument to do so is to show Israel it doesn't have a "veto" over when Palestinian territories could become a country. "They expand settlements, they advocate the depopulation of Gaza. And then they say, oh, you know we have to have a peace process in order to recognize a Palestinian state," Allen said.
